Phil,
Thank you for the link and summary. I concur with your thoughts about the AGB and a public comment period. I do not see how the ICANN Board can vote on a “final” until completion of such comment period. There is blogger speculation that the Board will try to approve the AGB at a special session in April, but I believe the probability to be very low.
My personal speculation is that the AGB will be voted by the Board at the June meeting. I’ve created a detailed time line based on this speculation and the milestones provided by ICANN and the AGB. Check it out at http://tlwatch.com. If you have suggestions to enhance it, please let me know. As milestone dates change, I intend to update the time line accordingly.
Thank you.
Berry Cobb
Infinity Portals LLC
berrycobb@infinityportals.com
http://infinityportals.com
720.839.5735
From: owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of Phil Corwin
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 8:24 AM
To: bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: [bc-gnso] ICANN Now Projects April 14 Release of New Version of Applicant Guidebook.
Importance: High
ICANN has just put out a new announcement on the gTLD program at http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-22feb11-en.htm .
In addition to containing summaries and analyses of the latest comments on the Guidebook, it has this to say about the process going forward --
The ICANN Board and Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) will meet in Brussels from 28 Feb – 1 Mar and during the ICANN meeting in San Francisco (13 – 18 March) in the interest of resolving the outstanding issues the GAC has identified with the new gTLD process.
A new version of the Applicant Guidebook is not being published at this time. This decision was made with the intent to avoid presuming the outcomes of the discussions among the Board, GAC, and community. Given the short time period between these consultations and the ICANN meeting in San Francisco, there is little utility to publishing a version with new changes, which would also be subject to additional changes based on the outcomes of these meetings, and without time for comment between versions.
Work on the Applicant Guidebook is continuing in parallel with these activities. ICANN is continuing to work with stakeholder groups in order to fully understand comments made on the Guidebook and make changes based upon them. It is expected that the next version of the Guidebook to be released will incorporate updates based on: public comment, ongoing consultations, and changes resulting from the Board-GAC consultations and from community discussions in San Francisco.
Based upon the language of the statement, it appears likely that the version of the Guidebook released in April will likely be subject to an additional round of public comment. As to what that means for the actual opening date of the application window, the answer is unclear but one would expect additional delay until at least June 2011 in my personal opinion.
Philip S. Corwin
Partner
Butera & Andrews
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-6875 (office)
202-347-6876 (fax)
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"Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey